Hello everyone!
I’m Mariana, known almost everywhere online as LindyBlues, a nod to the dances I do (Lindy Hop & Blues).
My birthday is March 11th.
I absolutely love “snail mail,” and grew up as an immigrant before the age of “everyone has a computer/Internet at home”, so I used to write letters to my family regularly. I love “real mail,” walking over to my mailbox and finding nice surprises there. I also love sending a little something to cheer up someone’s day.
Here’s a little about me:
I was born and raised in Brazil, lived in the US for 4 years (near Chicago), then immigrated to Canada with my family in 2000.
I’m fluent in English and Brazilian Portuguese, and I can get by in Spanish. I’d love to learn French, Polish, and ASL eventually.
I’m an “all over the place” crafter/amateur artist and I love to dabble in just about anything, though more and more, I find myself drawn to mixed media, especially featuring collage. Because mixed media lets me do all the things instead of picking just one, which is a generic theme in my life—wanting to do all the things, lol
Professionally, I’ve done a lot of things in my life, from retail to teaching to serving in the Canadian Naval Reserves to kinesiology, personal training, community health, to a lot of things in between. Currently, I homeschool my kids and do some writing on the side, though I’m not officially freelancing anymore. I was also recently hired as a Relief Programming Assistant at my local library, a casual position to fill in for library programs when folks are sick or on vacation, or to be a pair of extra hands for outreach programs.
I have been happily married for 17.5 years (started dating 22 years ago!), and we have 3 children born in 2010, 2012, and 2014, who I homeschool. My oldest will be heading to “real” high school this September, though.
I look forward to exchanging mail with many of you!
Some important but less interesting stuff about me:
I’m severely sensitive to scents/fragrances and they can trigger my asthma and my chronic post nasal drip/allergic rhinitis, so no smelly stuff please
I have Hypermobile Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome (hEDS) and I am prone to dislocations/subluxations (partial dislocations), so I wear a great deal of bracing to prevent injury. I also have a list of other chronic illnesses, and I deal with chronic pain. So sometimes I need recovery time from pushing myself too hard, which, after all these years, I’m still trying to learn not to do… I still want to be invited to all the things though, even if I say I can’t more times than I want to…